LOS ANGELES — Ellen DeGeneres has high aspirations for her second time around hosting the Oscars.

“It reached the world,” the talk show host said of her well-received 2007 Oscarcast. “And I'm trying to get world peace. So, that's my goal. My hope is by hosting the Academy Awards, right afterward, we have world peace.”

DeGeneres may have been exaggerating but there's no overstating her enthusiasm for the upcoming March 2 gig.

“I know a lot of those people,” she said of the Oscar audience. “They're on my show a lot. I love the whole business. ... I get to play with all those people in the audience and make people happy, and, hopefully, relax them.”

DeGeneres made her comments Friday while attending a Toys for Tots charity event in Los Angeles.

Rockies relief pitcher John Axford, who hasn't pitched for the team since last Wednesday, was forced to leave spring training camp after his 2-year-old son was bit by a rattlesnake twice in his right foot.

One-day event to run slide down University HillIt's not quite the alternative mode of transportation that Boulder's used to, but, for one day this summer, residents will be able to traverse several city blocks atop inflatable tubes.

DETROIT (AP) — In a story March 27 about a 'Little Syria' exhibit going to Ellis Island, The Associated Press, due to incorrect information from the Arab American National Museum, erroneously reported the date the exhibit will open. Full Story